Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Lamb Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lamb
Cut the rack of lamb into chops, removing the backbone and trimming the ribs to the same length.
Leave two rib bones in each chop, carefully trimming and scraping one bone clean.
Flatten the cutlets and trim off any ragged edges.
Cook and serve
Prepare a charcoal fire in the ash pan about 30 minutes before cooking.
Brush both sides of the cutlets with drippings or melted butter.
Place the cutlets on a wire broiler and cook quickly, about the same time as boiling a soft egg.
Toast and butter slices of bread, one for each cutlet, and serve them alternately with the cutlets on a hot dish.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Lamb + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together598 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Lamb + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,232 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rack of lamb
- Forms the cutlets, providing the meat that is cooked and served.
- Drippings or melted butter
- Adds fat that coats the cutlets, aiding browning and richness.
- Slices of bread
- Provide a crisp, buttered base to serve alongside the cutlets.
The step that matters
Cooking the cutlets quickly over the fire. Thin cutlets cook through in a short time over high heat. Overcooking dries the lean meat and toughens it, so they should be cooked fast and checked closely.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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